Farmers optimistic about 2014

CHIEFTAIN PHOTO/CHRIS MCLEAN
A farmer works a field near Vineland on Wednesday. With the best snowpack in years, area farmers are optimistic for a good growing season this year.

BY CHRIS WOODKA
The Pueblo Chieftain

Published: March 6, 2014;Last modified: April 12, 2014 06:17PM

Farmers are as certain as farmers can be that this year will be better than the last.

BETTER DAYS AHEAD?

Some indicators that 2014 will be an improvement for farmers:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that chances are good for an El Nino forming over the Pacific Ocean in late summer. Such systems usually mean warmer temperatures and increased rainfall for the Southern United States, including Southern Colorado.

Snowpack was more than 125 percent in the Arkansas River headwaters, which feed the mainstem of the river.

Winter water storage, which runs Nov. 15-March 15, was almost 92,000 acre-feet at the end of February, nearly double last year’s total and 90 percent of the 20-year average

Additional water will be available from the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, forecast at 40 percent above average as of March 1, and through leases by the Pueblo Board of Water Works.

All indications at a still early point in the growing season are pointing toward more favorable conditions than farmers have seen in the last three years.

“It’s almost like we’ve been on an extended summer vacation,” mused Dale Mauch, a Lamar farmer and Fort Lyon Canal board member. “It would be so much fun to plant a corn crop again. You’ve got to stay optimistic in this business, if not just for your mental health.”

The Arkansas Valley’s three largest irrigation well-owner groups have submitted plans to the state with varying degrees of optimism, after they were limited in 2013. Pumping levels depend on the availability of surface supplies for augmentation.